SUBSCRIBE:

Sudan deports asylum seekers fleeing repression in Ethiopia, Eritrea

For years, Ethiopia’s extensive restrictions on free speech and political rights have caused citizens to flee arbitrary detention, torture and politically motivated prosecutions. Thousands are believed to have fled into neighbouring countries, including Sudan, because of abuses associated with the crackdown.

The Sudanese authorities deported at least 442 Eritreans, including six registered refugees, to Eritrea in May 2016, Human Rights Watch said today. Sudan denied the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) access to identify those who wanted to claim asylum and also denied the agency access to 64 Ethiopians still in detention who risk deportation.

“Sudan is arresting and forcing Eritreans back into the hands of a repressive government without allowing refugees to seek protection,” said Gerry Simpson, senior refugee researcher and advocate at Human Rights Watch. “Sudan should be working with the UN refugee agency to protect these people, not send them back to face abuse.”

Eritrea, ruled by an extremely repressive government, requires all citizens under 50 to serve in national or military service indefinitely, often years longer than the 18 months authorized by law. Anyone of draft age leaving the country without permission is perceived to be a deserter, risking imprisonment in often inhumane conditions, as well as forced labor and torture. UNHCR considers the punishment so severe and disproportionate that it constitutes persecution and a basis on which to grant refugee status.

For years, Ethiopia's extensive restrictions on free speech and political rights, as well as intermittent crackdowns on protest movements, have caused citizens to flee arbitrary detention, torture and politically motivated prosecutions. Since November, security forces have killed hundreds of students and others during protests throughout Oromia state. Thousands of people are believed to have fled into neighboring countries, including Sudan, because of abuses associated with the crackdown.

International law forbids countries from deporting asylum seekers without first allowing them to apply for asylum and considering their cases. This right applies regardless of how asylum seekers enter a country or how long they have been in a country before claiming asylum. International law also prohibits the deportation, return, or forced expulsion of anyone to a place where they face a real risk to their life, or of torture or ill-treatment.

According to UNHCR, on May 6 the Sudanese authorities arrested 377 people in the Sudanese border town of Dongola as they tried to cross to Libya. Among them were the 313 Eritreans, including six who had already registered as refugees in Sudan, and 64 Ethiopians, none of whom were registered refugees. All were tried and convicted of “illegal entry” into Sudan. Sudan deported the Eritreans, including 14 children, on May 22, and continues to detain the Ethiopians.

A credible source said UNHCR asked the Sudanese authorities for access to the group, but that the request was denied.

Sudanese authorities are entitled to arrest and question Eritreans and other foreign nationals not registered as asylum seekers or who do not have other legal status in Sudan, Human Rights Watch said. However, Sudan is obliged to allow Eritreans and others to lodge asylum claims in Sudan at any time, even if they have already been in the country for some time, and to fairly review those claims.

UNHCR also confirmed that a few days earlier, the Sudanese authorities deported 129 Eritreans to their country. Other sources told Human Rights Watch the group was deported on May 17. A well-known Eritrean activist in Sweden told Human Rights Watch that on May 7, an Eritrean man contacted her and said that his sister and about 130 other Eritreans who had left Eritrea on May 3 had been intercepted and imprisoned by Sudanese security.

The man said that after his sister stopped calling him, he called the Eritrean Embassy in Sudan on May 17 and was told that the Sudanese authorities had deported the group to Eritrea that morning. The man's mother also told her son and the activist that her daughter and an unspecified number of other people had been deported from Sudan and detained in a rehabilitation prison in the Eritrean border town of Tesseney.

In May and June, 2014, Sudan deported at least 104 Eritreans to Eritrea without first giving UNHCR access to the group, drawing condemnation from UNHCR. And between May and late July 2011, and again in October 2011, Sudan deported more than 300 Eritreans back to Eritrea without allowing them to claim asylum, also drawing the UN refugee agency's condemnation.

No international agencies are able to monitor the treatment of Eritreans deported to Eritrea or Ethiopia.

According to UN and other sources, throughout 2015 and 2016 between 3,000 and 4,000 Eritreans fled their country each month and claimed asylum in Ethiopia's and Sudan's refugee camps, where all but a very small number of refugees are required to live. However, the camp population remained more or less static during that time, indicating that the same number had left the camps.

Thousands of Eritreans use smugglers every year to travel from Eritrea through Ethiopia and Sudan to Libya and Egypt, from where many then try to reach the European Union by boat. Human Rights Watch has documented that thousands were kidnapped and tortured for ransom in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula between 2010 and 2013, in some cases with the collusion of Sudanese and Egyptian security officials.

The EU is in the early stages of working with Sudan and other African countries to tighten their border controls, tackle refugee and migrant smuggling, and improve the lives of potential migrants in those countries. Sudan has said it welcomed the effort, though Human Rights Watch expressed concern about whether Sudan will respect the rights of refugees. Sudan's security forces have been responsible for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Darfur and other conflict areas and are known for arbitrary detentions, ill-treatment, and torture of detainees.

“If Sudan wants to market itself as a refugee-rights-respecting nation, it's going about it the wrong way,” Simpson said. “Eritreans, Ethiopians and others who want protection must be allowed full access to fair asylum procedures.”

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

More from Sudan

The highly restrictive Press and Printed Press Materials Law of 2004 was updated in November 2016 to include specific clauses pertaining to online journalism, extending onerous limitations long placed on the traditional press to the online sphere

Free Expression & the Law:

More from Free Expression & the Law

The general trend over the past 10 years has been bleak, with an overall negative trajectory for press freedom. The major turning point was the election of Xi Jinping as General Secretary of the Communist Party of China in 2012 and President of China in 2013.

In 2014, Cameroon enacted a broad anti-terror law as part of its effort to counter the extremist group Boko Haram, but authorities are using it to arrest and threaten local journalists who report on the militants or unrest in the country’s English-speaking regions.

Since 2013, law enforcement authorities in Bangladesh have illegally detained scores of opposition activists and held them in secret without producing them before courts, as the law requires. In most cases, those arrested remain in custody for weeks or months before being formally arrested or released. Others however are killed in so-called armed exchanges, and many remain “disappeared.”

This study examines the existence of criminal defamation and insult laws in the territory of the 57 participating States of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE). In doing so, it offers a broad, comparative overview of the compliance of OSCE participating States’ legislation with international standards and best practices in the field of defamation law and freedom of expression.

READ AND DOWNLOADThis study analyses current trends in civil defamation and privacy cases in Hungary involving the media and summarises key challenges for freedom of the press and expression. Written by Hungarian media lawyer Bea Bodrogi, the study examined 250 court decisions related to civil protection of 'personality rights', an area in Hungarian law that includes defamation, privacy and personal image.

Freedom Forum has issued a review of Nepal's National Mass Communications Policy 2016. Among others, FF says the policy fails to articulate constitutional provisions relating to freedom of expression and mass communication. The policy, they said, also seems to promote centralided regulation, instead of self-regulation.

The Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) in 2016 maintained its control over all public affairs and punished those who challenged its monopoly on power. Authorities restricted basic rights, including freedom of speech, opinion, association, and assembly. All religious groups had to register with the government and operate under surveillance. Bloggers and activists faced daily police harassment and intimidation, and were subject to arbitrary house arrest, restricted movement, and physical assaults.

Malaysia's human rights situation continued to deteriorate in 2016, with human rights defenders, activists, political opposition figures, and journalists facing harassment and politically motivated prosecution. Those criticising the administration of Prime Minister Najib Razak or commenting on the government's handling of the 1 Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) corruption scandal have been particular targets.

Authorities continue to use sedition and criminal defamation laws to prosecute citizens who criticise government officials or oppose state policies. In a blow to free speech, the government in 2016 argued before the Supreme Court in favour of retaining criminal penalties for defamation. The court upheld the law.

After already cracking down on freedom of information in recent years, President Erdoğan has taken advantage of the abortive coup d’état and the state of emergency in effect since 20 July to silence many more of his media critics, not only Gülen movement media and journalists but also, to a lesser extent, Kurdish, secularist and left-wing media.

This publication presents the findings of the media development assessment in Mongolia that began in 2012 to determine the state of the media in the country. The assessment was based on the UNESCO/IPDC Media Development Indicators (MDIs), an internationally recognized analytical tool used to provide detailed overviews of national media landscapes and related media development priorities.

“After the initial optimism during the Euromaidan movement, many journalists have become disillusioned. They are faced with the triple challenge of the war in the Eastern part of the country, the economic crisis and the digitalization of mass media.”

An officer of the Myanmar army recently filed a criminal complaint against two journalists for allegedly sowing disunity among the military. Even though mediation by the Press Council caused the military to withdraw the case, this incident demonstrates how the military continues to throw its weight to get back at what it perceives as negative publicity.

The government uses draconian laws such as the sedition provisions of the penal code, the criminal defamation law, and laws dealing with hate speech to silence dissent. These laws are vaguely worded, overly broad, and prone to misuse, and have been repeatedly used for political purposes against critics at the national and state level.

IFEX publishes original and member-produced free expression news and reports. Some member content has been edited by IFEX. We invite you to contact [email protected] to request permission to reproduce or republish in whole or in part content from this site.